This episode of The Exorcist delivers horror and heartbreak in equal measure, featuring murder, mayhem, and some of the best character moments this season.
Last week, most of The Exorcist was spent delving into Andy’s past: his relationship with his kids and wife, and all the ways the demon is going to use them against him. Now, we’re out of Andy’s head and right back into the thick of it, and things can only get worse from here.
“A Heaven Of Hell” weaves some lovely conversations in with the action and scares, which is what made it one of my favorite episodes so far this season. The show is working with a cast of phenomenally talented actors, and this week they really got a chance to shine.
The kids are not alright
The plot makes no effort to hand-wave the fact that at this point, Andy has literally killed people. Throughout the episode, the kids all struggle to come to terms with what is going to happen to them — that even if Andy is saved, there’s no going back to the way things were. Amid the supernatural horror is a deeply authentic tragedy about children losing their father.
At the center of that tragedy is Verity, the first kid Andy and Nicole ever fostered and the person who stands to lose everything if Andy doesn’t pull through. Earlier in the season she talks about the unfairness of the foster system, which will abandon her the moment she ages out of the system. Now she reminds Rose that if Andy isn’t there to look out for her when that time comes, there’s a good chance she’ll face homelessness.
What makes that subplot so effective, other than the fact that it’s an important critique of a real problem in the foster system, is that it’s hard to see an easy answer to Verity’s plight. Even if Andy survives, he’s not exactly going to be in a position to pick up his foster duties again. Plausibly, he could even go to prison. Maybe Rose will step up to help Verity — especially after their bonding moment in this episode. But right now, there’s no safety net waiting for Verity if everything goes south.
Of course, as a sympathetic audience member, I would love to see all the kids get reunited with a demon-free Andy and take their family far from the creepy murder island. But it’s genuinely difficult to imagine how that would even be possible. But hey, the Rance family got their happy ending. I for one haven’t given up on Andy’s family yet.
That being said, the fact that the episode ends with Andy running around murdering more people doesn’t exactly bode well.
Marcus is scared of feelings
We also get a fascinating glimpse into Marcus’s past, and his relationship with Mouse. Given how much the demons have been harping on their history as some dark and sordid secret, what we saw this episode wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it could be. The two of them clearly cared for each other, but (from what we’ve seen so far) never truly acted on those feelings; Marcus abandoning Mouse in the hands of the other exorcists might seem pretty bad on a surface level, but considering all the ammunition a demon had to use against him, it seemed like a smart move to me. But there’s still time for more bombshells to drop, especially when Mouse and Marcus reunite at last.
This backstory adds an important layer to Marcus’ newest budding relationship. It seems Peter is ready to go all-in with their relationship after their last romantic boat ride. Though, can you really describe a date where you interview a survivor of mass demon murder and shout about your deep-seated trauma “romantic?” …Yes. Yes you can.
Though sitting outside a house where there’s a literal demon waiting to be exorcised is a bit of a mood-killer, Marcus’s hesitation clearly runs deeper than simple logistics. Peter is arguably the first character on the show who has made an active attempt to get closer to Marcus for solely personal reasons. And of course, when faced with the possibility of opening up, Marcus takes off running in the opposite direction.
It’s impossible to say right now whether Marcus has even had an intimate emotional connection with anyone other than Peter since his relationship with Mouse resulted in disaster. Either way, the scene cutting between Mouse and Peter makes the connection obvious. Marcus is afraid of hurting the people he cares about, so he tries not to care about anyone.
Tomas Ortega, human disaster
And now, at long last, Tomas’s visions come back to bite him in the butt. I honestly laughed —albeit in mortification — at the reveal that his heartfelt conversation where Marcus tells him he’s a fully-fledged exorcist turns out to be a demon-spun fantasy. It was just so perfectly awful. I’m already cringing at the confrontation when Marcus finds out Tomas let Andy escape. Tomas just wants Marcus to respect and validate him; boy howdy, that does not seem likely to happen any time soon.
On the other front, Mouse and Bennett are closer than ever to meeting up with Marcus and Tomas. Unfortunately, a spot of septic shock from a wound Bennett received from Maria Walters lands him in the hospital. Mouse has to leave him behind in order to get to the other two exorcists as quickly as possible — which is tragic, because I was desperately looking forward to more of Marcus and Bennett sniping at each other for the remainder of the season.
Despite being so chock-full of character development, this was not a slow episode of The Exorcist by any means. Every conversation or flashback serves to wind the tension tighter. This was a great entry in the second season, and it sets up all the pieces for the last installments to be even better.